February 2012
37 posts
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Jeremy Lin’s Evolution →
I’m pretty tired of ‘Linsanity’, but this is a highly-recommended & inspiring read on perseverance & determination.
h/t @dasan
Jeremy Lin’s rise did not begin, as the world perceived it, with a 25-point explosion at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 4. It began with lonely 9 a.m. workouts in downtown Oakland in the fall of 2010; with shooting drills last summer on a...
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Experience: The Blog: 50 Things Every Exec Should... →
In other words, it’s about people - great stuff from Augie Ray.
Your child has a better shot at creating a viral video than does your brand.
You cannot post and tweet yourself to marketing success while customers are drowning you out with complaints about your product, service or corporate policies.
People sign into Facebook to find out what their friends are up to, not to connect with...
“All journalists who break news are in the business of giving and receiving...”
– Tech media misconceptions - The Term Sheet: Fortune’s deals blog Term Sheet
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Marc Benioff is the Next...
I’ve always been of 2 minds when it comes to Salesforce.com ($CRM).
As an investor (I don’t own any shares) I both follow and invest in tech but tend to be wary of richly-priced companies, which Salesforce certainly is. I’ve always had a value bent with a warm spot for the type of healthy skepticism Todd Sullivan expresses in last night’s post (and today’s stream).
...
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“The most important country, the United States, had no strategy after 1991 and...”
– The State of the World: A Framework | STRATFOR
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Watchthat Lin kid has nothing on my own
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RSS Is Dead (In OS X Mountain Lion) →
Wasn’t too long ago that I was very high on RSS but haven’t looked at a reader in years. Social curation has replaced any need I ever had for blog subscriptions - seems the same is true for others.
parislemon:
As Dan Frakes notes for Macworld, there’s something missing in OS X Mountain Lion: RSS.
Previously, a (shitty) RSS reader was built into Mail. And Safari would sniff for RSS...
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“I’m not saying the previous Windows icons were good, but they had enough...”
– With Windows Like These Who Needs Enemies? [UPDATED] - Brand New
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“It’s a calculated, evilly smart way to make staying within the Apple family even...”
– Mountain Lion is very cool, but I have to chuckle - if Microsoft or Google were doing this, the media would be screaming bloody murder.
Apple’s Mountain Lion Makes the Mac More Like the iPad - NYTimes.com
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“New York City is the social media capital of the United States.”
– San Francisco would beg to differ, but @MikeBloomberg clearly gets it.
Mayor Bloomberg Launches Four New NYC Social Media Channels During Social Media Week
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“But the reality is that not every company in this space can succeed because they...”
– When is the social curation bubble going to burst? — GigaOM
“The reason for the shift is simple: Nike is going where its customer is. And its...”
– Nike’s new marketing mojo - Fortune Management
Nike knows where Marketing is going.
Great read - h/t @reformedbroker
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Attention (Boston) Sports Fans
My son Scott’s soccer team (which as you can see is pretty good) is going to be playing in a number of tournaments outside the Boston area this year, and is doing a fundraiser to help defray the travel costs for some of his teammates.
Rather than sending one of those guilt-inducing emails asking my friends to ante up, thought maybe I’d do it this way. If you’re a Boston sports...
Olivier Blanchard's answer to What is a Social...
Social Media Guru: A term used to assign imaginary expertise in a nascent communications field to an individual with little to no real world business experience and the professional integrity of a bowl of banana pudding. Synonyms: Social Media D**chebag, Personal Branding Expert, Conversation Strategist, Social Media Speaker, Best-Selling Social Media Author. What is a Social Media Guru?
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“Content production and delivery over the ages of modern humanity has always been...”
– Michael Brenner: Will Content Marketing Destroy Social Media? – Influencer Marketing Review
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Less (Content) Is More →
Interesting post from Kerry Lauerman, Editor in Chief of Salon, via Boing Boing & my friend John Maden, describing the aftereffects of Salon’s shift away from original content and toward aggregation - and the resulting shift back.
But a funny, delightful thing has come out of it all. We ended 2011 on a remarkable high note, with over 7 million unique visitors for the first time,...
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“Katy Perry came bouncing by and tried to catch their attention. They either...”
– Tom Brady in postgame daze of disappointment after another Super Bowl loss to the Giants
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Letter From Alexander Graham Bell : 1915 →
classic retake on the Zuckerberg letter
h/t @howardlindzon
gbattle:
American Telephone & Telegraph Company was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.
We think it’s important that everyone who invests in AT&T understands what this mission means to us, how we make decisions…
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“Things not only must change, they will change. Either we will make the difficult...”
– Powerful, sobering letter from John Mauldin. A must-read.
Who Took My Easy Button? (.PDF)
“Build, Sell or Leave. It IS THAT EASY.”
– Just Fucking Sell
possibly my favorite blog post of all time…
h/t @WendySLea
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Is Amazon Slipping?
I’ve been a very loyal Amazon customer for many, many years. I first check the Amazon.com site for practically anything I purchase, and have been a happy Prime member since the advent of the program. In addition, the company’s first VP of Customer Service Bill Price, who wrote the excellent book The Best Service is No Service, is a friend with whom I’ve shared many conference...
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Venture Verite: The Facebook IPO: too little, too... →
beautifully said by tdagres - read the whole thing:
Not so many Years ago, 1970’s to 2000, companies such as Cisco, Intel, Apple, Starbucks, Home Depot, and Federal Express would go public and the vast majority of their appreciation would be after the IPO. Small Investors were able to enjoy this value creation. Naturally there was a risk of losing money. Of course some companies acted badly...
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January 2012
65 posts
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“Jobs and wealth are created by those who are taxed, not by those who do the...”
– Arthur Laffer: Why Gingrich’s Tax Plan Beats Romney’s - WSJ.com
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betaworks Shareholder Letter →
Fascinating read (and a must-read) if you’re in the industry.
Betaworks Shareholder Letter
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I love Readability →
Just discovered Readability and it has quickly become my favorite and most-used Chrome extension.
Readability has replaced 3 extensions I was previously using - Read It Later, Evernote Clearly and Klip.me’s Send to Kindle. They are all good too, but Readability puts those 3 functions in a single extension.
If you’re using Chrome, have a Kindle, and love to read - it’s a...
“In the digital space, with things like Facebook and Google and others, we find...”
– the shift is on
P&G to Cut 1,600 Jobs, Bank on Digital for Long-term Savings | Digital - Advertising Age
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“Vanna and I would go across [the street] and have two, or three or six. And then...”
– Pat Sajak’s hosted ‘Wheel of Fortune’ drunk – The Marquee Blog - CNN.com Blogs
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“There’s no software priced between $1,000 and $75,000. I’ll tell you...”
– The 2 Things About Your Start-up Idea That Actually Matter | Inc.com
I’ve heard the high end of that number closer to $250,000 but the point still holds.
H/T @Jon_Ferrara
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How iOS can lose: the independent developer as a... →
With Apple’s blowout quarter in the rearview mirror, here is one of the best pieces I’ve read on what the future might look like.
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“The stimulus package is a key tool for advancing clean energy goals and...”
– 11 stunning revelations from Larry Summers’s secret economics memo to Barack Obama « The Enterprise Blog
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“It was like hitching a train to a pony and expecting him to be a steam engine.”
– Why the Last Blackberry User in Silicon Valley Finally Gave It Up | PandoDaily
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It's just getting started
I had a great time on yesterday’s Focus.com SOPA Roundtable and was honored to be asked to participate. While we took a bit of time to celebrate the fact that the effective death of the current SOPA & PIPA bills is a clear victory for those of us who opposed them, the panel was also unanimous in recognizing that this is only a single, minor victory in what has been and likely will...